An object thrown into a crowded rally in Perth on 26 January has been confirmed as a homemade bomb, sparking fear and mistrust among the city's Indigenous community. The device landed in Forrest Place during an Invasion Day rally, where about 2,500 people had gathered. Police later said it had the potential to explode and injure or kill many people.
A 31-year-old man was arrested at the scene and charged with intent to endanger life and making or possessing explosives. Two days later, the Australian federal police, Asio and the Western Australian joint counter-terrorism team announced they were investigating the incident as a potential terrorist act.
Nadine Highfield, a Wangkatha woman who attended the rally with her sister, described the shock as the device landed near vulnerable people, including parents with prams, wheelchair users and elders. 'Where it landed, those are people in wheelchairs. There were babies and prams... they would have died,' she said. Highfield expressed sadness that the incident had not provoked wider public outrage, saying, 'It's like upside-down land, where really bad things happen but it's not a big deal if it happens to Black people.'
Tanesha Bennell, a Noongar traditional owner, criticised politicians for being slow to condemn the attack. Premier Roger Cook condemned it on Monday night, and Anthony Albanese followed in subsequent days, but the term 'potential terror incident' was not used for more than 48 hours. Bennell said, 'There's an ongoing gaslighting... It's like our trauma is being denied before we've even began to process it.'
The slow evacuation from Forrest Place was partly due to community mistrust of police, according to Bennell. 'Mob don't have good relationships with police... when we see all of these police in uniforms, it's so distressing for some of our community,' she said. The incident has added to a sense of grief and anger, compounded by a recent death in custody and the cancellation of a Survival Day festival.
